her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and
JEREMIAH AND LAMENTATIONS
Jews in a similar way by saying,
the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths.'' (Leviticus 26:43.)
For when the Jews had the opportunity and leisure (when no enemies molested them) to observe the worship of God, they contemptuously profaned the Sabbaths.
As, then, God's worship had been so disgracefully neglected by them, God said,
land itself shall in your stead keep the Sabbath;'' how? it shall not be ploughed, it shall not bring forth fruit. (Leviticus 26:34, 35.) That cessation was called by
God Sabbath, but not without a taunt; for he cuttingly reproved the Jews for having violated the Sabbaths, as was also done by Jeremiah, (Jeremiah 17:22, 27.) 489
It then appears to me probable that taunts were cast by enemies against the
Jews, that they might now have a long and a continual Sabbath, while the city was deserted and no one dwelt there. For it would have been cold and unmeaning to say that the enemies laughed at the cessation of it. The Prophet would have no doubt used a different word, if his purpose had been to point out the blasphemy of enemies as to God's worship. The enemies then saw and laughed at her cessation; but this cessation they called by way of reproach Sabbatharian. It follows, ---
Lamentations 1:8
8. Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.
8. Peccatum peccavit Jerusalem (hoc est, scelerate egit;) proterea in migrationem
(vel, commotionem) facta est (hoc est, Reddita fuit instabilis;) omnes qui honore eam persequebantur, spreverunt eam, quia viderunt turpitudinem (vel, foeditatem) ejus; etiam ipsa gemens, et conversa est retrorsum.
Here the Prophet expresses more clearly and strongly what he had briefly referred to, even that all the evil which the Jews suffered proceeded from God's vengeance, and that they were worthy of such a punishment, because they had not lightly offended, but had heaped up for themselves a dreadful judgment, since they had in all manner of ways abandoned themselves to impiety. This is the substance of what is said. We hence learn that the Prophet did not compose this song to lament the calamity of his own country as heathens were wont to do. An example of a heathen lamentation we have in Virgil: ---
is the great day and the unavoidable time
Of Dardania: we Trojans have been; Ilium has been,
And the great glory of the Teuerians: cruel Jupiter has to Argos
Transferred all things: the Danai rule in the burnt city.'' 490
489There are in this verse four lines, while there are only three in all the rest; but there is no ground for supposing an interpolation, as some have thought; for it is found in every Hebrew copy and in the versions, and the Targum. As to the last word, it is rendered by the Sept., "habitation," or according to the Alexandrian copy, "emigration;" by the Vulg. "sabbaths;" and by the Syr. "sorrow." The word is nowhere found to signify the Sabbath. It is either from {,{שבהto lead captive, as Parkhurst thinks, and means captivity, emigration; or from ,{}שבתto cease, to come to an end, according to Blayney and Henderson, and may be rendered ``discontinuance,'' i.e., as a nation or a state, or ``ruin.'' But the former meaning agreeing with the Sept. is to be preferred, --- When fall did her people, and she had no helper, See her did oppressors, they laughed at her captivity. --- Ed
490"Venit summa dies et ineluctabile tempus Dardaniae: fuimus Troes; fuit Ilium et ingens Gloria Teucrorum: ferus omnia Jupiter Argos Transtulit: incensa Danai dominantur in urbe." Virg. AEn. 2.